When you buy a stock, you are never buying it at the bottom. Out of 365 days in the year, there is only one “bottom”, and every day up to that bottom was a “mistake” to buy. And every 365 days has only one “top”, and selling every day up to that day was a “mistake”. It’s easy to think that you’re terrible at timing the market, but statistically speaking, the odds are very high (like 99% chance) that the market will drop below where you buy in at some point, and will rise above where you sold at some point.
And if you believe the algo’s can grab your shares and then push the prices up, or sell you shares and then push the price down to cover their naked sales, you’re probably right, but that doesn’t mean the system is rigged; that’s just a mechanism the market has to create more liquidity. The system works fine. You can make money. Eventually, good companies and good stocks will rise.
So if you want to be happy in the stock market:
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Do not try to time the market unless you are playing the trading game, which is a game most will lose at. Instead, the solution is to dollar cost average into the market, or buy stocks that are clearly good deals and wait it out. Over time, you will win by going long into a diverse group of high quality companies and index funds.
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Buy companies and industries that you understand and are comfortable with. If you know a company well and are comfortable with it, then a drop in price is a discount. Just wait it out and you’ll eventually be higher.
The market is not rigged. Eventually, markets WILL rise. And trying to time the market will do nothing but cause frustration (unless you employ tools like charting, and watch the technicals).
Hope this is helpful to someone.
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